Wednesday, December 08, 2004
Final Projects
I've got big final projects in all my classes, and this time all but one are done in groups of 2 or more. I've been spending most of my waking hours on campus (and this includes many hours that don't have any right to be waking hours), and I've been missing at least one meal a day for the last few days. Some of the projects are interesting, some are pointless. At this point I just wish I was done with them already.
Part of the problem for me is that I've been doing more than my "fair share" of the work on the projects. I have a somewhat hard time relying on others to get things done, and I usually end up doing work to a higher standard than my parters do. In one project in particular, my partners keep telling me that I've done enough already, and should leave the rest to them, but the reason I've done most of it is that I have a better grasp of how things work or need to work. For example, there was one part where I found it faster to completely rewrite and debug a section of the project than to try to figure out what was happening in my partner's version of that part. Net result? I wrote most of the code for the project, and am the only one with a decent grasp of how it works, meaning that I'm the only one who has any idea about how to fix bugs with it. At least I was able to talk about the beginning stages of this project quite a bit in my Intel interview.
I don't remember if I mentioned it, but I flew out to Hillsboro, OR to interview with Intel a few weeks ago. I didn't really get to see much of the area, and I wasn't all that impressed with the company, but I think I'd like the team I would be working on and the job I would be doing.
Both Intel and NI have offered me jobs, and I will have to make a decision about accepting one of them. Making a decision is hard, because I neither job seems to clearly be better than the other. If I have to list the good and bad points of each, here's how it might break down:
NI
+ Located in Austin, which is where I've worked before. I know the area a bit, and if NI doesn't work out I may be able to work at my old company again.
+ I like the people I would be working with there.
+ Fairly good weather, from what I've heard.
+ The company philosophy seems to be "We'll take care of you, so please work hard."
+ They've never laid anyone off, and have been in the top 100 places to work for list for the last 5 years.
+ Very nice office campus
- The job I would be doing isn't as close to computer chip design as I'd like it to be.
- The company really only has the Austin site, so I wouldn't be able to transfer to other cities if I later felt the desire to.
- The company isn't huge (yet), which means that it has more limits on what jobs I could do there. It also means that it's more likely to go belly up while I'm working there.
Intel
+ Huge company with lots of sites I could transfer to if I wanted to
+ 50% more vacation time than NI, and an extra 8-week paid sabbatical every 7 years
+ The team I would be working with seems to really love what they're doing
+ The team I would be working with has lots of people from UW-Madison
+ More opportunities to move around within the company
+ I'd be working on computer chips
- Hillsboro wasn't impressive (the little I saw)
- The whole interview/job offer process has been very poorly organized
- The company philosophy seems to be "If you work really hard, we'll give you money."
- I don't know anything about the area (although I've been told Portland is nice)
- The campus isn't very nice.
- I got the impression that the people I asked questions were afraid to tell me what they truly thought. As if they were afraid that someone was secretly listening to them and would report them if they said something against the company dogma. The only people who seemed to be level with me were the guy who's offering me the job, and the guy who took me out to lunch. The guy who took me out to lunch "isn't part of the interview process," and was someone I only saw during that lunch. It made me wonder if he felt like he could be level with me because we were in a restaurant, and not in the office.
I'd be happy to hear any advice my faithful readers might have about this dilemma.
PS. The weather here has been incredibly warm (relative to what it usually is here). We had snow for a few minutes last week, but other than that we've just gotten rain.
Part of the problem for me is that I've been doing more than my "fair share" of the work on the projects. I have a somewhat hard time relying on others to get things done, and I usually end up doing work to a higher standard than my parters do. In one project in particular, my partners keep telling me that I've done enough already, and should leave the rest to them, but the reason I've done most of it is that I have a better grasp of how things work or need to work. For example, there was one part where I found it faster to completely rewrite and debug a section of the project than to try to figure out what was happening in my partner's version of that part. Net result? I wrote most of the code for the project, and am the only one with a decent grasp of how it works, meaning that I'm the only one who has any idea about how to fix bugs with it. At least I was able to talk about the beginning stages of this project quite a bit in my Intel interview.
I don't remember if I mentioned it, but I flew out to Hillsboro, OR to interview with Intel a few weeks ago. I didn't really get to see much of the area, and I wasn't all that impressed with the company, but I think I'd like the team I would be working on and the job I would be doing.
Both Intel and NI have offered me jobs, and I will have to make a decision about accepting one of them. Making a decision is hard, because I neither job seems to clearly be better than the other. If I have to list the good and bad points of each, here's how it might break down:
NI
+ Located in Austin, which is where I've worked before. I know the area a bit, and if NI doesn't work out I may be able to work at my old company again.
+ I like the people I would be working with there.
+ Fairly good weather, from what I've heard.
+ The company philosophy seems to be "We'll take care of you, so please work hard."
+ They've never laid anyone off, and have been in the top 100 places to work for list for the last 5 years.
+ Very nice office campus
- The job I would be doing isn't as close to computer chip design as I'd like it to be.
- The company really only has the Austin site, so I wouldn't be able to transfer to other cities if I later felt the desire to.
- The company isn't huge (yet), which means that it has more limits on what jobs I could do there. It also means that it's more likely to go belly up while I'm working there.
Intel
+ Huge company with lots of sites I could transfer to if I wanted to
+ 50% more vacation time than NI, and an extra 8-week paid sabbatical every 7 years
+ The team I would be working with seems to really love what they're doing
+ The team I would be working with has lots of people from UW-Madison
+ More opportunities to move around within the company
+ I'd be working on computer chips
- Hillsboro wasn't impressive (the little I saw)
- The whole interview/job offer process has been very poorly organized
- The company philosophy seems to be "If you work really hard, we'll give you money."
- I don't know anything about the area (although I've been told Portland is nice)
- The campus isn't very nice.
- I got the impression that the people I asked questions were afraid to tell me what they truly thought. As if they were afraid that someone was secretly listening to them and would report them if they said something against the company dogma. The only people who seemed to be level with me were the guy who's offering me the job, and the guy who took me out to lunch. The guy who took me out to lunch "isn't part of the interview process," and was someone I only saw during that lunch. It made me wonder if he felt like he could be level with me because we were in a restaurant, and not in the office.
I'd be happy to hear any advice my faithful readers might have about this dilemma.
PS. The weather here has been incredibly warm (relative to what it usually is here). We had snow for a few minutes last week, but other than that we've just gotten rain.
Comments:
Well, first off congrats on the job offers! Must feel great to be wanted by such major companies. And it's a hard choice to make, but as I've been told it's a good position to be in since many students don't often get job offers they want. In any case, it's probably a win-win situation. After just comparing the company benefits, how much they can do for you in terms of the long run, I would just settle to looking at what would make you happy in the long run. Are you going to stay with them until retirement? If not, you might want to look into what reputation each company has...i.e. would you be more readily hired after gaining experience at Intel or NI? What skills could you earn from each company to help you at a different job? Stuff along those lines may help decide which is better. That probably doesn't help much. But anyhow, best of luck on your decision. ~Momo
# posted by 
: 12/08/2004 7:21 PM
: 12/08/2004 7:21 PM
Hey, if you would stop talking about making a start-up, and actually make one, then I'd consider it. Given your track record (Dvorak, Japanese) I'm not going to turn down an offer just because you're talking about making a start-up.
What's that you say? Actually doing something? That sounds like so much effort. You know me better than that :p
I've made it the semi-final round of the business plan competition. If I can make it to the final round, they'll give me some money to play with. You should ask for an extension till mid-February; you should ask for extensions and reject their offers if they don't give you exentions anyway: it' the only rational thing to do from a game theory perspective - think optimal stopping.
lazy dan
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I've made it the semi-final round of the business plan competition. If I can make it to the final round, they'll give me some money to play with. You should ask for an extension till mid-February; you should ask for extensions and reject their offers if they don't give you exentions anyway: it' the only rational thing to do from a game theory perspective - think optimal stopping.
lazy dan
# posted by : 12/13/2004 5:16 PM
: 12/13/2004 5:16 PM